Japan Education

Japan's education system, like its industry, isn't satisfied by success and is striving to bolster its admittedly weak universities and to foster more analytical thinking, according to a major U.S. study of Japanese schools released today. This move for education reform, which one U.S. expert called "the No. 1 domestic issue" in Japan, took off in 1983 when a Japanese national council decried the "state of desolation" in the nation's schools.

The parents were furious: Why, they demanded, had Japanese officials raised the acceptable level of radiation exposure for schoolchildren near the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant? By upping the limit, children were allowed on playgrounds containing higher levels of radioactivity than had been permitted before the nearby atomic plant was damaged by the devastating March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the parents said. While it may be impossible to rid the air of dangerous isotopes, they added, the ground is a different matter.

In studying Pearl Harbor and World War II, students in Japan and the United States have one thing in common, according to experts in both countries: They learn very little. Most American history courses devote little attention to 20th-Century history, said Esther Taira, Los Angeles Unified School District curriculum specialist.

Kathy Oshima George is the principal of an elementary school where Japanese is taught to every student from kindergarten through sixth grade. But when students see George on campus at Concordia Elementary, they greet her in English, the only language she speaks. The third-generation Japanese American is scrambling now to learn a bit of her ancestors' language before leaving for Tokyo next month for a three-week program sponsored by the Fulbright Memorial Fund Teacher Program.

Twice a week, Ko goes to cram school to prepare for the crucial entrance exam he will have to take next year. He arrives for class with a tiny knapsack packed with his crayons, lunch box and a diaper. He is, after all, only 2 years old. Japan's super-competitive system of "examination hell" is engulfing ever-younger children, spawning a new industry of cram schools to help the baby boomers' babies pass entrance exams for elite private kindergartens and elementary schools.

Japan's Supreme Court upheld government censorship of schoolbooks Tuesday, rejecting a landmark lawsuit by a textbook crusader who has waged a 30-year battle against whitewashing of wartime history. The Supreme Court backed a Tokyo High Court decision seven years ago that defended the Education Ministry's constitutional right to dictate the contents of schoolbooks.

One of the biggest problems in teaching English to students in Japan is that they already know too many English words, according to Shunsaku Sakata, a visiting professor at Cal State Fullerton. About 30,000 Japanese words are borrowed from English, the 48-year-old professor said. He pointed around his office at Cal State Fullerton and spoke the words desk, chair, box, tissue and briefcase. All these words are the same in Japanese, he said.

In 1951 and 1952, before he became a newsman, Roger Mudd taught at a private boys' school in Rome, Ga. On Monday, he'll take public-TV viewers back to class as host of a five-part series examining the state of "Learning in America." Its first chapter examines, with often gloomy conclusions, how American education compares with that in Japan and other countries.

Most of the managers who have piloted East Asia's industrialization since World War II learned the art of management on the job, at company training courses or within the family. But now applications and enrollments at U.S.-inspired graduate business schools in East Asia are rising. Japanese corporations, which have particularly relied on in-house training, are starting to put more of their middle-level managers through master of business administration programs. And this fall, U.S.

In a historic decision ending an ideologically charged 32-year legal battle, the Japanese Supreme Court on Friday ruled that it was illegal for the government to censor from textbooks unsavory facts about Japan's wartime past.

Twice a week, Ko goes to cram school to prepare for the crucial entrance exam he will have to take next year. He arrives for class with a tiny knapsack packed with his crayons, lunch box and a diaper. He is, after all, only 2 years old. Japan's super-competitive system of "examination hell" is engulfing ever-younger children, spawning a new industry of cram schools to help the baby boomers' babies pass entrance exams for elite private kindergartens and elementary schools.

Raelyn Campbell first came to Japan as a high school student. Now the 25-year-old Oregon native is back, studying international politics at the elite Tokyo University on a prestigious Education Ministry fellowship. She is a fluent Japanese speaker and works part time for a member of parliament. In the eyes of both countries, Campbell is a success: a young American who came to Japan impressionable, was intrigued--and probably will spend the rest of her life working on Japan-related activities.

A Saugus elementary school hopes to duplicate the academic successes of Japanese schools by adopting the Japanese teaching format. Emblem Elementary School has restructured how six full-time instructors will teach 210 of its students in grades four through six, beginning in July. "We're not trying to teach anything different than any other teachers. We're just trying to teach it better," said Saugus Union School District Supt. Troy Bramlett.

Japan's Supreme Court upheld government censorship of schoolbooks Tuesday, rejecting a landmark lawsuit by a textbook crusader who has waged a 30-year battle against whitewashing of wartime history. The Supreme Court backed a Tokyo High Court decision seven years ago that defended the Education Ministry's constitutional right to dictate the contents of schoolbooks.

One of the biggest problems in teaching English to students in Japan is that they already know too many English words, according to Shunsaku Sakata, a visiting professor at Cal State Fullerton. About 30,000 Japanese words are borrowed from English, the 48-year-old professor said. He pointed around his office at Cal State Fullerton and spoke the words desk, chair, box, tissue and briefcase. All these words are the same in Japanese, he said.

In a scramble to develop the advanced technologies for the 21st Century, Japanese firms have hiked research spending, opened basic research labs and introduced more flexible working conditions. But in the quest for innovative thinkers to produce creative breakthroughs, many still look to America. In the past, Japanese firms generally obtained U.S. technology through joint ventures and licensing agreements. Today, that strategy is changing. Many companies are now establishing their own U.S.

Raelyn Campbell first came to Japan as a high school student. Now the 25-year-old Oregon native is back, studying international politics at the elite Tokyo University on a prestigious Education Ministry fellowship. She is a fluent Japanese speaker and works part time for a member of parliament. In the eyes of both countries, Campbell is a success: a young American who came to Japan impressionable, was intrigued--and probably will spend the rest of her life working on Japan-related activities.

Kensuke Inouye and Yuji Omagari, both 11, live in the same city in the same country. But when it comes to their summer vacations, they are worlds apart. Kensuke gets to sit around a campfire, fashioning whistles out of clay and listening to live musical performances amid fresh mountain air, green rolling hills and the melody of a rushing river stream in Fukushima, two hours north of Tokyo. Yuji sits in a sterile classroom from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Welcome aboard the most conspicuous English-language classroom in Tokyo. It's parked in front of busy Shinjuku station, a Gargantuan double-decker bus painted in screaming yellow. Inside, it's outfitted with pink velour seats, a flip-down karaoke screen and glass chandeliers. Eight Japanese and the Australian teacher are in the back, introducing themselves as the bus takes off promptly at 1 p.m. for Asakusa Temple across town.